Jury selection began Monday in the sex trafficking case against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, the musician facing charges related to his alleged “freak offs.”
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00:00Jury selections underway for Sean Diddy Combs in his sex trafficking trial in New York City.
00:05Now dozens of New Yorkers came to court in Manhattan.
00:08They previously felled out questionnaires and then lawyers and the judge questioned them individually
00:13about their understanding and awareness of the case and the evidence
00:16and also whether they were familiar with any of the many, many names that may come up during this trial.
00:22Some of those names include celebrities, musicians, and actors.
00:25Combs has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
00:29He's been in federal custody in jail in Brooklyn since September of 2024.
00:34In his previous appearances, he came to court in a jail jumpsuit.
00:39But for this trial, he's allowed to wear street clothes, a sweater, a button-down shirt.
00:44That said, he's not allowed to have hair dye in jail, and so in court, his hair and his goatee are almost fully gray.
00:53During the jury selection process, some prospective jurors said they had seen some of the key pieces of evidence
00:59that will be displayed at this trial.
01:03Several said they had watched the video, the now infamous video, of Combs assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie
01:10at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
01:13One woman who said she saw a still image of that video called it damning evidence.
01:18That woman was not selected for the jury.
01:22The judge said she expects this trial to take eight weeks, and prosecutors say they expect
01:28to call four accusers to the witness stand.
01:31The crux of the case involves what prosecutors say were freak-offs, parties where Sean Combs
01:37allegedly engaged in misconduct with partners, other women, and sex workers.